Mapping the Novel
The city of Winchester, as depicted in A Miserable Revenge, has changed quite a bit since the setting of the novel in the early 1840s. Having spent his childhood apprenticed to a white family in Winchester, Newman clearly “keeps the geography of the novel closely aligned to the towns, cities, and regions he lived in” (Sizemore). However, because Newman only knew the city as it was the 1850s and 1860s, there are some historical anachronisms in his representations of several locations in the novel. Click the locations on the Points of Interest map below to learn more.
Many of the locations mentioned in the novel, like Loudoun Street, remain where they once were. Others, like Ash Hollow, are dramatically changed. The Valley Mill road that the Sowers inhabited still stands as is, though the Valley Mill Farm and Eddy’s Mill that he used as models for Sowers’ mansion and mill have been completely rebuilt and renovated over the years. Use the slider on the Winchester Then and Now map to see how Winchester has changed.
Points of Interest in A Miserable Revenge
To use this map, click a location. Each location contains information about the location’s history and its relevance to A Miserable Revenge.
Winchester Then and Now
This map shocases the differences between Winchester in 1832 and Winchester today. Click and drag on the slider to see how the maps Winchester from either 1832 or modern Winchester compare.
Credit: Alex Cooley and Nathan Johnson
Works Cited
“Abrams Creek & Its Surrounding Water Shed,” Shenandoah University, Winchester, Virginia. 2025
Cooley, Alex. Abram’s Creek. 2025.
Cooley, Alex. Ash Hollow I. 2025.
Cooley, Alex. Ash Hollow II. 2025.
Cooley, Alex. Loudoun Street I. 2025.
Cooley, Alex. Old Church. 2025.
Cooley, Alex. Old Court House. 2025.
Cooley, Alex. Old House I. 2025.
Cooley, Alex. Old House II. 2025.
Cooley, Alex. Sower’s Mill. 2025.
Cooley, Alex. Taylor Hotel. 2025.
Cooley, Alex. Town Hall. 2025.
Greene, Katherine Glass. “Winchester, Virginia, and Its Beginnings, 1743–1814: From Its Founding by Colonel J Became Wood to the Close of the Life of His Son, Brigadier-General and Governor James Wood, with the Publication for the First Time of Valuable Manuscripts, Relics of Their Long Tenure of Public Offices.” Strasburg, VA: Shenandoah Publishing House, 1926.
Jones, Devry Becker. “Taylor Hotel ‘Packed With Confederate Wounded’,” HMbd (The Historical Marker Database), Winchester, May, 2020
Library of Congress. “Map of the Routes Examined and Surveyed for the Winchester and Potomac Rail Road. 1831–1832.” Library of Congress. Accessed April 13, 2025. https://tile.loc.gov/image-services/iiif/service:gmd:gmd388:g3883:g3883f:rr006190/full/pct:12.5/0/default.jpg.
Miller, Keith. “Locations in A Miserable Revenge,” A Miserable Revenge: A Story of Life in Virginia, edited by Mollie Godfrey, Brooks Hefner, Jeslyn Pool, and Evan Sizemore, James Madison University Libraries, 2025, pp. 300-301.
National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, “Valley Mill Farm,” Winchester, Frederick, Virginia, https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/86/6807/41680786/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/06000032.pdf
National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, “Frederick County Courthouse,” Winchester, Frederick, Virginia.
Virginia Department of Transportation, “Frederick County, VA, Supplement Sheet A.” Country Road Map Series, VDOT, 2021.